hairless: My Sister’s Keeper

My Sister’s Keeper

In Los Angeles, the eleven year old Anna Fitzgerald hires a lawyer to fight for medical emancipation from her mother Sara (Cameron Diaz) who wants Anna to donate a kidney to her older sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) who suffers from leukaemia. Anna tells the lawyer both how she was conceived by in vitro fertilization to specifically to become a donor and the medical procedures to which she has already been submitted. The lawyer agrees to work pro bono but Sara, whose life completely revolves around keeping Kate alive, goes to court to force Anna to help her sister. During the court case it is revealed that it was Kate who had asked Anna to file for medical emancipation – believing that she would not survive the surgery she wants to die.

Somewhere along the way in this clumsey tear-jerker Sara shaves her head in support of Kate, who has lost her hair, as a result of the chemotherapy – the fake shaving is quite a neat bit of makeup effects trickery (Cameron, unlike Sofia, did not shave her head). However, Sara's sacrifice is then ignored for the rest of the film in which she has long hair in every other scene except for being bald for the family day out the next day.

Cosas insignificantes with Barbara Mori was so much better although not entirely successful – even with subtitles!

Apparently, in the original novel, Anna wins her court battle only to be severely injured in a car accident. She is declared brain-dead and becomes a kidney donor anyway. Kate survives the transplant and goes into remission. Maybe a different ending – and a different Sara – might have made a difference.